Julian's Second Visit to Hastings - Filming at the Stade - May 12, 2007

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.

The grapevine had told me that some filming for FW 6 would be taking place on Friday & Saturday (11th/12th of May) in Hastings. I was unable to go on Friday but Saturday was free, so I sallied forth at 7.30am on a cloudy but windy day to the south coast.

After encountering the usual delays for roadworks, I eventually arrived at the sea front of Hastings at around 9am. It was blowing a force 9 gale but I battled my way up to Croft Road to see if Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle was home! To my dismay I was told that all the filming in Hastings old town had been completed yesterday (Friday), and this had included a VE Day street party plus all our heroes - Michael Kitchen, Anthony Howell, Honeysuckle Weeks. I was devastated. However, the kind person I spoke to went on to say - "do not fear, filming continues today (Saturday) down on The Stade and, although you won't see MK or Anthony Howell today, if you are patient you may see some other 'stars' of the show"! Hoorah!!

I made my way down to the sea front and lo and behold there were the signs pointing to 'FW Unit Base'. The Stade was full with vans, lorries, cars & equipment plus, there was Foyle's car (KVX 757) parked proudly at the front.>br>
A kind Greenlit man pointed me to where I could stand and view the action and not be in the way. The filming had just started with scenes involving Captain John Kieffer (Jay Benedict from 'Invasion'). He arrives in a WW2 type Taxi at the jetty and appeared to be contemplating his departure (back to the US maybe? - not suicide!!!!).

Soon KVX 757 was moved to the jetty area and more general scenes were shot. After about an hour or so my patience was rewarded - hoorah - Honeysuckle Weeks arrived to do some scenes in KVX 757. The wind was a real problem for the sound guys, and hats & caps were flying around too (including mine which is now somewhere on its way to France! Never mind, all in the course of FW duty!!).

I really was rewarded after about another hour for who should appear - none other than Julian Ovenden (Andrew Foyle) - three cheers! Then followed loads of scenes between Sam & Andrew (I wonder if they actually do get................!), unfortunately no-one was prepared to spill the beans - we'll just have to wait and see!

Things then got even better because - were my eyes deceiving me - no, Anthony Horowitz (the esteemed creator of FW) arrived in a flash (first time I've seen AH in the flesh so to speak). Evidently I was witnessing the creation of some of the very final scenes of FW 6 episode 3 - an historic moment (hence the reason for AH's presence).

Filming continued for most the day, but when the words "that's it ladies & gentlemen" were heard, loud applause rang out and much hugging & shaking of hands ensued, there followed the well deserved refreshments.

To top a wonderful day, I managed to grab a few words with Honeysuckle Weeks who agreed with me that the end of FW was a sad occasion. Although she was weary and rather windswept, she was as charming as ever, and willingly signed my FW book ('The Real History behind FW').

I started to make my way home at about 4pm - windswept, bedraggled, wind-burnt face and looking like I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards! But it was certainly worth every second. Although I wasn't as fortunate as my last visit to Hastings (April 2006 when MK was around), I count it a real privilege to have witnessed some of the very final FW scenes to have been created - an historic event I feel.


















Many thanks to Julian for use of the photos!